Kyōto had then been a battlefield for over eleven years, and during the course of the fierce fighting, the imperial palace, the mansions of the nobles, the residences and warehouses of the people, and many of the largest temples, had been burned to the ground, books and documents transmitted from ancient times and invaluable heirlooms and works of art being destroyed at the same time. In truth, the once splendid city was reduced, after this war, to a state of desolation and ruin. The military and civilian classes alike were plunged in poverty. The laws were discarded; the administration of justice was in disorder. The territorial magnates in the provinces discontinued the payment of taxes, closed their districts against communication from without, and governed according to their own will. The mandates of the sovereign commanded no respect. After the palace was leveled with the ground its inner buildings were later reconstructed, but, inasmuch as the territorial magnates ceased to pay taxes to the central government, the court nobles found themselves without revenues and the administrative officials were without salaries, so that some of them had no resource but to wander about the country and depend on the farmers for means of sustenance. Under such circumstances the usual court ceremonials were, of course, dispensed with. Such was the impecuniosity in Kyōto that the Emperor Gotsuchimikado was unable to hold the wonted ceremony on the occasion of his accession, and at the time of his death, his funeral rites could not be performed owing to lack of funds for the funeral. It was not until the utmost exertions had been employed that the sum of a thousand _hiki_ (2500 _yen_) was collected and the burial rites were performed. On the succession of Gokashiwabara, also, the coronation ceremony had to be abandoned for similar reasons, nor could it be performed until twenty-two years had elapsed, when the lord abbot of Hongwan-ji contributed a sum of ten thousand pieces of gold for the purpose. While Gonara was on the throne, even the daily necessaries of life could not be procured in the imperial court without difficulty, neither could the palace buildings be repaired, though they had fallen into a state of much dilapidation. The court, at that era, experienced the extremity of poverty. It is on record that Sanjōnishi Sanetaka, one of the courtiers, persuaded Ōuchi Yoshitaka to provide funds for carrying out the coronation ceremony, which must otherwise have been left in abeyance; and that the Emperor Ōgimachi, under similar circumstances, had recourse to the pecuniary assistance of Mōri Motonari.[2]